How To Disable Fullscreen Optimization For Games On Windows 10

Windows 10 introduced fullscreen optimization which, if your hardware supports it, is meant to boost gaming performance and at the same time, give you a nice borderless full screen to play the game in. Unfortunately, this feature has had mixed reviews. Some users say they experience a drop in framerate while others say it runs alright. There is no definitive list of games that work well in it. Unfortunately, in the Fall Creators Update, Microsoft thought it was a good idea to remove the option to disable fullscreen optimization by removing the option to disable the game bar.

If you’d rather selectively disable fullscreen optimization for some games but leave it on for others, consider using the CompatibilityManager app. It’s a free app that can edit the compatibility settings for apps in bulk and has an option to disable fullscreen optimization for multiple apps at once.

Disable Fullscreen Optimization

Download CompatibilityManager and run it. The app does not need to be installed. It can make changes to the compatibility settings for the current user or for all users. If you want to change compatibility settings and disable fullscreen optimization for games for all users then you will need administrative rights to do so.

Run CompatibilityManager and it will load games from your Steam library by default because it’s built primarily for games. You can of course add other folders and files from the respective buttons at the bottom and manage compatibility settings for other apps as well.

Select the games and apps you want to disable fullscreen optimization for. Change its compatibility mode settings, and its color mode settings if you need/want to, and click the ‘Save selected to registry’ button at the bottom. You can use the app to enable fullscreen optimization again just as easily.

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Not For Everyone

We should point out that you don’t have to disable fullscreen optimization if it isn’t affecting your games. Users with powerful hardware sometimes don’t notice any difference and they might tell you that the feature is useless. Users with slightly dated hardware might tell you that there’s a noticeable improvement or that their games run exceptionally poor. The point is, the opinions on this feature’s effectiveness vary for every user, machine, and app. If the feature isn’t a problem on your system, don’t disable it. It might just be helping your games run better.

You can also try disabling it and see if your games run better or worse and then decide how you want to run them. The point of the app is to make it easier to enable or disable fullscreen optimization and it does that exceptionally well.